THE SECOND CONFERENCE OF ABBOT ISAAC.
ON PRAYER.
Complete Contents.
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Introduction.
AMONG the sublime customs of the anchorites which by God's help have
been set forth although in plain and unadorned style, the course of
our narration compels us to insert and find a place for something,
which may seem so to speak to cause a blemish on a fair body: although
I have no doubt that by it no small instruction on the image of
Almighty God of which we read in Genesis will be conferred on some of
the simpler sort, especially when the grounds are considered of a
doctrine so important that men cannot be ignorant of it without
terrible blasphemy and serious harm to the Catholic faith.
Of the custom which is kept up in the Province of
Egypt for signifying the time of Easter.
IN the country of Egypt this custom is by ancient tradition observed
that--when Epiphany is past, which the priests of that province regard
as the time, both of our Lord's baptism and also of His birth in the
flesh, and so celebrate the commemoration of either mystery not
separately as in the Western provinces but on the single festival of
this day,[578]--letters are sent from
the Bishop of Alexandria through all the Churches of Egypt, by which
the beginning of Lent, and the day of Easter are pointed out not only
in all the cities but also in all the monasteries.[579] In accordance then with this
custom, a very few days after the previous conference had been held
with Abbot Isaac, there arrived the festal letters of Theophilus[580] the Bishop of the aforesaid city, in
which together with the announcement of Easter he considered as well
the foolish heresy of the Anthropomorphites[581] at great length, and abundantly
refuted it. And this was received by almost all the body of monks
residing in the whole province of Egypt with such bitterness owing to
their simplicity and error, that the greater part of the Elders
decreed that on the contrary the aforesaid Bishop ought to be abhorred
by the whole body of the brethren as tainted with heresy of the worst
kind, because he seemed to impugn the teaching of holy Scripture by
the denial that Almighty God was formed in the fashion of a human
figure, though Scripture teaches with perfect clearness that Adam was
created in His image. Lastly this letter was rejected also by those
who were living in the desert of Scete and who excelled all who were
in the monasteries of Egypt, in perfection and in knowledge, so that
except Abbot Paphnutius the presbyter of our congregation, not one of
the other presbyters, who presided over the other three churches in
the same desert, would suffer it to be even read or repeated at all in
their meetings.
Of Abbot Sarapion and the heresy of the
Anthropomorphites into which he fell in the error of simplicity.
AMONG those then who were caught by this mistaken notion was one named
Sarapion, a man of long-standing strictness of life, and one who was
altogether perfect in actual discipline, whose ignorance with regard
to the view of the doctrine first mentioned was so far a stumbling
block to all who held the true faith, as he himself outstripped almost
all the monks both in the merits of his life and in the length of time
(he had been there). And when this man could not be brought back to
the way of the right faith by many exhortations of the holy presbyter
Paphnutius, because this view seemed to him a novelty, and one that
was not ever known to or handed down by his predecessors, it chanced
that a certain deacon, a man of very great learning, named Photinus,
arrived from the region of Cappadocia with the desire of visiting the
brethren living in the same desert: whom the blessed Paphnutius
received with the warmest welcome, and in order to confirm the faith
which had been stated in the letters of the aforesaid Bishop, placed
him in the midst and asked him before all the brethren how the
Catholic Churches throughout the East interpreted the passage in
Genesis where it says "Let us make man after our image and
likeness."[582] And when he
explained that the image and likeness of God was taken by all the
leaders of the churches not according to the base sound of the
letters, but spiritually, and supported this very fully and by many
passages of Scripture, and showed that nothing of this sort could
happen to that infinite and incomprehensible and invisible glory, so
that it could be comprised in a human form and likeness, since its
nature is incorporeal and uncompounded and simple, and what can
neither be apprehended by the eyes nor conceived by the mind, at
length the old man was shaken by the numerous and very weighty
assertions of this most learned man, and was drawn to the faith of the
Catholic tradition. And when both Abbot Paphnutius and all of us were
filled with intense delight at his adhesion, for this reason; viz,
that the Lord had not permitted a man of such age and crowned with
such virtues, and one who erred only from ignorance and rustic
simplicity, to wander from the path of the right faith up to the very
last, and when we arose to give thanks, and were all together offering
up our prayers to the Lord, the old man was so bewildered in mind
during his prayer because he felt that the Anthropomorphic image of
the Godhead which he used to set before himself in prayer, was
banished from his heart, that on a sudden he burst into a flood of
bitter tears and continual sobs, and cast himself down on the ground
and exclaimed with strong groanings: "Alas! wretched man that I
am! they have taken away my God from me, and I have now none to lay
hold of; and whom to worship and address I know not." By which
scene we were terribly disturbed, and moreover with the effect of the
former Conference still remaining in our hearts, we returned to Abbot
Isaac, whom when we saw close at hand, we addressed with these
words.
Of our return to Abbot Isaac and question
concerning the error into which the aforesaid old man had fallen.
ALTHOUGH even besides the fresh matter which has lately arisen, our
delight in the former conference which was held on the character of
prayer would summon us to postpone everything else and return to your
holiness, yet this grievous error of Abbot Sarapion, conceived, as we
fancy, by the craft of most vile demons, adds somewhat to this desire
of ours. For it is no small despair by which we are cast down when we
consider that through the fault of this ignorance he has not only
utterly lost all those labours which he has performed in so
praiseworthy a manner for fifty years in this desert, but has also
incurred the risk of eternal death. And so we want first to know why
and wherefore so grievous an error has crept into him. And next we
should like to be taught how we can arrive at that condition in
prayer, of which you discoursed some time back not only fully but
splendidly. For that admirable Conference has had this effect upon
us, that it has only dazzled our minds and has not shown us how to
perform or secure it.
The answer on the heresy described above.
ISAAC: We need not be surprised that a really simple man who had never
received any instruction on the substance and nature of the Godhead
could still be entangled and deceived by an error of simplicity and
the habit of a longstanding mistake, and (to speak more truly)
continue in the original error which is brought about, not as you
suppose by a new illusion of the demons, but by the ignorance of the
ancient heathen world, while in accordance with the custom of that
erroneous notion, by which they used to worship devils formed in the
figure of men, they even now think that the incomprehensible and
ineffable glory of the true Deity should be worshipped under the
limitations of some figure, as they believe that they can grasp and
hold nothing if they have not some image set before them, which they
can continually address while they are at their devotions, and which
they can carry about in their mind and have always fixed before their
eyes. And against this mistake of theirs this text may be used:
"And they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the
likeness of the image of corruptible man."[583] Jeremiah also says: "My people
have changed their glory for an idol."[584] Which error although by this its
origin, of which we have spoken, it is engrained in the notions of
some, yet none the less is it contracted in the hearts also of those
who have never been stained with the superstition of the heathen
world, under the colour of this passage where it is said "Let us
make man after our image and our likeness,"[585] ignorance and simplicity being its
authors, so that actually there has arisen owing to this hateful
interpretation a heresy called that of the Anthropomorphites, which
maintains with obstinate perverseness that the infinite and simple
substance of the Godhead is fashioned in our lineaments and human
configuration. Which however any one who has been taught the Catholic
doctrine will abhor as heathenish blasphemy, and so will arrive at
that perfectly pure condition in prayer which will not only not
connect with its prayers any figure of the Godhead or bodily
lineaments (which it is a sin even to speak of), but will not even
allow in itself even the memory of a name, or the appearance of an
action, or an outline of any character.
Of the reasons why Jesus Christ appears to each one
of us either in His humility or in His glorified condition.
FOR according to the measure of its purity, as I said in the former
Conference, each mind is both raised and moulded in its prayers if it
forsakes the consideration of earthly and material things so far as
the condition of its purity may carry it forward, and enable it with
the inner eyes of the soul to see Jesus either still in His humility
and in the flesh, or glorified and coming in the glory of His Majesty:
for those cannot see Jesus coming in His Kingdom who are still kept
back in a sort of state of Jewish weakness, and cannot say with the
Apostle: "And if we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we
know Him so no more;"[586] but
only those can look with purest eyes on His Godhead, who rise with Him
from low and earthly works and thoughts and go apart in the lofty
mountain of solitude which is free from the disturbance of all earthly
thoughts and troubles, and secure from the interference of all sins,
and being exalted by pure faith and the heights of virtue reveals the
glory of His Face and the image of His splendour to those who are able
to look on Him with pure eyes of the soul. But Jesus is seen as well
by those who live in towns and villages and hamlets, i.e., who are
occupied in practical affairs and works, but not with the same
brightness with which He appeared to those who can go up with Him into
the aforesaid mount of virtues, i.e., Peter, James, and John. For so
in solitude He appeared to Moses and spoke with Elias. And as our
Lord wished to establish this and to leave us examples of perfect
purity, although He Himself, the very fount of inviolable sanctity,
had no need of external help and the assistance of solitude in order
to secure it (for the fulness of purity could not be soiled by any
stain from crowds, nor could He be contaminated by intercourse with
men, who cleanses and sanctifies all things that are polluted) yet
still He retired into the mountain alone to pray, thus teaching us by
the example of His retirement that if we too wish to approach God with
a pure and spotless affection of heart, we should also retire from all
the disturbance and confusion of crowds, so that while still living in
the body we may manage in some degree to adapt ourselves to some
likeness of that bliss which is promised hereafter to the saints, and
that "God may be" to us "all in all."[587]
What constitutes our end and perfect bliss.
FOR then will be perfectly fulfilled in our case that prayer of our
Saviour in which He prayed for His disciples to the Father saying
"that the love wherewith Thou lovedst Me may be in them and they
in us;" and again: "that they all may be one as Thou,
Father, in Me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us,"[588] when that perfect love of God,
wherewith "He first loved us"[589] has passed into the feelings of our
heart as well, by the fulfilment of this prayer of the Lord which we
believe cannot possibly be ineffectual. And this will come to pass
when God shall be all our love, and every desire and wish and effort,
every thought of ours, and all our life and words and breath, and that
unity which already exists between the Father and the Son, and the Son
and the Father, has been shed abroad in our hearts and minds, so that
as He loves us with a pure and unfeigned and indissoluble love, so we
also may be joined to Him by a lasting and inseparable affection,
since we are so united to Him that whatever we breathe or think, or
speak is God, since, as I say, we attain to that end of which we spoke
before, which the same Lord in His prayer hopes may be fulfilled in
us: "that they all may be one as we are one, I in them and Thou
in Me, that they also may be made perfect in one;" and again:
"Father, those whom Thou hast given Me, I will that where I am,
they may also be with Me."[590]
This then ought to be the destination of the solitary, this should be
all his aim that it may be vouchsafed to him to possess even in the
body an image of future bliss, and that he may begin in this world to
have a foretaste of a sort of earnest of that celestial life and
glory. This, I say, is the end of all perfection, that the mind
purged from all carnal desires may daily be lifted towards spiritual
things, until the whole life and all the thoughts of the heart become
one continuous prayer.
A question on the training in perfection by which
we can arrive at perpetual recollection of God.
GERMANUS: The extent of our bewilderment at our wondering awe at the
former Conference, because of which we came back again, increases
still more. For in proportion as by the incitements of this teaching
we are fired with the desire of perfect bliss, so do we fall back into
greater despair, as we know not how to seek or obtain training for
such lofty heights. Wherefore we entreat that you will patiently
allow us (for it must perhaps be set forth and unfolded with a good
deal of talk) to explain what while sitting in the cell we had begun
to revolve in a lengthy meditation, although we know that your
holiness is not at all troubled by the infirmities of the weak, which
even for this reason should be openly set forth, that what is out of
place in them may receive correction. Our notion then is that the
perfection of any art or system of training must begin with some
simple rudiments, and grow accustomed first to somewhat easy and
tender beginnings, so that being nourished and trained little by
little by a sort of reasonable milk, it may grow up and so by degrees
and step by step mount up from the lowest depths to the heights: and
when by these means it has entered on the plainer principles and so to
speak passed the gates of the entrance of the profession, it will
consequently arrive without difficulty at the inmost shrine and lofty
heights of perfection. For how could any boy manage to pronounce the
simplest union of syllables unless he had first carefully learnt the
letters of the alphabet? Or how can any one learn to read quickly,
who is still unfit to connect together short and simple sentences?
But by what means will one who is ill instructed in the science of
grammar attain eloquence in rhetoric or the knowledge of philosophy?
Wherefore for this highest learning also, by which we are taught even
to cleave to God, I have no doubt that there are some foundations of
the system, which must first be firmly laid and afterwards the
towering heights of perfection may be placed and raised upon them.
And we have a light idea that these are its first principles; viz.,
that we should first learn by what meditations God may be grasped and
contemplated, and next that we should manage to keep a very firm hold
of this topic whatever it is which we do not doubt is the height of
all perfection. And therefore we want you to show us some material
for this recollection, by which we may conceive and ever keep the idea
of God in the mind, so that by always keeping it before our eyes, when
we find that we have dropped away from Him, we may at once be able to
recover ourselves and return thither and may succeed in laying hold of
it again without any delay from wandering around the subject and
searching for it. For it happens that when we have wandered away from
our spiritual speculations and have come back to ourselves as if
waking from a deadly sleep, and, being thoroughly roused, look for the
subject matter, by which we may be able to revive that spiritual
recollection which has been destroyed, we are hindered by the delay of
the actual search before we find it, and are once more drawn aside
from our endeavour, and before the spiritual insight is brought about,
the purpose of heart which had been conceived, has disappeared. And
this trouble is certain to happen to us for this reason because we do
not keep something special firmly set before our eyes like some
principle to which the wandering thoughts may be recalled after many
digressions and varied excursions; and, if I may use the expression,
after long storms enter a quiet haven. And so it comes to pass that
as the mind is constantly hindered by this want of knowledge and
difficulty, and is always tossed about vaguely, and as if intoxicated,
among various matters, and cannot even retain firm hold for any length
of time of anything spiritual which has occurred to it by chance
rather than of set purpose: while, as it is always receiving one thing
after another, it does not notice either their beginning and origin or
even their end.
The answer on the efficacy of understanding, which
is gained by experience.
ISAAC: Your minute and subtle inquiry affords an indication of purity
being very nearly reached. For no one would be able even to make
inquiries on these matters,I will not say to look within and
discriminate,--except one who had been urged to sound the depths of
such questions by careful and effectual diligence of mind, and
watchful anxiety, and one whom the constant aim after a well
controlled life had taught by practical experience to attempt the
entrance to this purity and to knock at its doors. And therefore as I
see you, I will not say, standing before the doors of that true prayer
of which we have been speaking, but touching its inner chambers and
inward parts as it were with the hands of experience, and already
laying hold of some parts of it, I do not think that I shall find any
difficulty in introducing you now within what I may call its hall, for
you to roam about its recesses, as the Lord may direct; nor do I think
that you will be hindered from investigating what is to be shown you
by any obstacles or difficulties. For he is next door to
understanding who carefully recognizes what he ought to ask about, nor
is he far from knowledge, who begins to understand how ignorant he is.
And therefore I am not afraid of the charge of betraying secrets, and
of levity, if I divulge what when speaking in my former discourse on
the perfection of prayer I had kept back from discussing, as I think
that its force was to be explained to us who are occupied with this
subject and interest even without the aid of my words, by the grace of
God.
Of the method of continual prayer.
WHEREFORE in accordance with that system, which you admirably compared
to teaching children (who can only take in the first lessons on the
alphabet and recognize the shapes of the letters, and trace out their
characters with a steady hand if they have, by means of some copies
and shapes carefully impressed on wax, got accustomed to express their
figures, by constantly looking at them and imitating them daily), we
must give you also the form of this spiritual contemplation, on which
you may always fix your gaze with the utmost steadiness, and both
learn to consider it to your profit in unbroken continuance, and also
manage by the practice of it and by meditation to climb to a still
loftier insight. This formula then shall be proposed to you of this
system, which you want, and of prayer, which every monk in his
progress towards continual recollection of God, is accustomed to
ponder, ceaselessly revolving it in his heart, having got rid of all
kinds of other thoughts; for he cannot possibly keep his hold over it
unless he has freed himself from all bodily cares and anxieties. And
as this was delivered to us by a few of those who were left of the
oldest fathers, so it is only divulged by us to a very few and to
those who are really keen. And so for keeping up continual
recollection of God this pious formula is to be ever set before you.
"O God, make speed to save me: O Lord, make haste to help
me,"[591] for this verse has not
unreasonably been picked out from the whole of Scripture for this
purpose. For it embraces all the feelings which can be implanted in
human nature, and can be fitly and satisfactorily adapted to every
condition, and all assaults. Since it contains an invocation of God
against every danger, it contains humble and pious confession, it
contains the watchfulness of anxiety and continual fear, it contains
the thought of one's own weakness, confidence in the answer, and the
assurance of a present and ever ready help. For one who is constantly
calling on his protector, is certain that He is always at hand. It
contains the glow of love and charity, it contains a view of the
plots, and a dread of the enemies, from which one, who sees himself
day and night hemmed in by them, confesses that he cannot be set free
without the aid of his defender. This verse is an impregnable wall
for all who are labouring under the attacks of demons, as well as
impenetrable coat of mail and a strong shield. It does not suffer
those who are in a state of moroseness and anxiety of mind, or
depressed by sadness or all kinds of thoughts to despair of saving
remedies, as it shows that He, who is invoked, is ever looking on at
our struggles and is not far from His suppliants. It warns us whose
lot is spiritual success and delight of heart that we ought not to be
at all elated or puffed up by our happy condition, which it assures us
cannot last without God as our protector, while it implores Him not
only always but even speedily to help us. This verse, I say, will be
found helpful and useful to every one of us in whatever condition we
may be. For one who always and in all matters wants to be helped,
shows that he needs the assistance of God not only in sorrowful or
hard matters but also equally in prosperous and happy ones, that he
may be delivered from the one and also made to continue in the other,
as he knows that in both of them human weakness is unable to endure
without His assistance. I am affected by the passion of gluttony. I
ask for food of which the desert knows nothing, and in the squalid
desert there are wafted to me odours of royal dainties and I find that
even against my will I am drawn to long for them. I must at once say:
"O God, make speed to save me: O Lord, make haste to help
me." I am incited to anticipate the hour fixed for supper, or I
am trying with great sorrow of heart to keep to the limits of the
right and regular meagre fare. I must cry out with groans: "O
God, make speed to save me: O Lord, make haste to help me."
Weakness of the stomach hinders me when wanting severer fasts, on
account of the assaults of the flesh, or dryness of the belly and
constipation frightens me. In order that effect may be given to my
wishes, or else that the fire of carnal lust may be quenched without
the remedy of a stricter fast, I must pray: "O God, make speed to
save me: O Lord, make haste to help me." When I come to supper,
at the bidding of the proper hour I loathe taking food and am
prevented from eating anything to satisfy the requirements of nature:
I must cry with a sigh: "O God, make speed to save me: O Lord,
make haste to help me." When I want for the sake of
steadfastness of heart to apply myself to reading a headache
interferes and stops me, and at the third hour sleep glues my head to
the sacred page, and I am forced either to overstep or to anticipate
the time assigned to rest; and finally an overpowering desire to sleep
forces me to cut short the canonical rule for service in the Psalms:
in the same way I must cry out: "O God, make speed to save me: O
Lord, make haste to help me." Sleep is withdrawn from my eyes,
and for many nights I find myself wearied out with sleeplessness
caused by the devil, and all repose and rest by night is kept away
from my eyelids; I must sigh and pray: "O God, make speed to save
me: O Lord, make haste to help me." While I am still in the
midst of a struggle with sin suddenly an irritation of the flesh
affects me and tries by a pleasant sensation to draw me to consent
while in my sleep. In order that a raging fire from without may not
burn up the fragrant blossoms of chastity, I must cry out: "O
God, make speed to save me: O Lord, make haste to help me." I
feel that the incentive to lust is removed, and that the heat of
passion has died away in my members: In order that this good condition
acquired, or rather that this grace of God may continue still longer
or forever with me, I must earnestly say: "O God, make speed to
save me: O Lord, make haste to help me." I am disturbed by the
pangs of anger, covetousness, gloominess, and driven to disturb the
peaceful state in which I was, and which was dear to me: In order that
I may not be carried away by raging passion into the bitterness of
gall, I must cry out with deep groans: "O God, make speed to save
me: O Lord, make haste to help me." I am tried by being puffed
up by accidie, vainglory, and pride, and my mind with subtle thoughts
flatters itself somewhat on account of the coldness and carelessness
of others: In order that this dangerous suggestion of the enemy may
not get the mastery over me, I must pray with all contrition of heart:
"O God, make speed to save me: O Lord, make haste to help
me." I have gained the grace of humility and simplicity, and by
continually mortifying my spirit have got rid of the swellings of
pride: In order that the "foot of pride" may not again
"come against me," and "the hand of the sinner disturb
me,"[592] and that I may not be
more seriously damaged by elation at my success, I must cry with all
my might, "O God, make speed to save me: O Lord, make haste to
help me." I am on fire with innumerable and various wanderings
of soul and shiftiness of heart, and cannot collect my scattered
thoughts, nor can I even pour forth my prayer without interruption and
images of vain figures, and the recollection of conversations and
actions, and I feel myself tied down by such dryness and barrenness
that I feel I cannot give birth to any offspring in the shape of
spiritual ideas: In order that it may be vouchsafed to me to be set
free from this wretched state of mind, from which I cannot extricate
myself by any number of sighs and groans, I must full surely cry out:
"O God, make speed to save me: O Lord, make haste to help
me." Again, I feel that by the visitation of the Holy Spirit I
have gained purpose of soul, steadfastness of thought, keenness of
heart, together with an ineffable joy and transport of mind, and in
the exuberance of spiritual feelings I have perceived by a sudden
illumination from the Lord an abounding revelation of most holy ideas
which were formerly altogether hidden from me: In order that it may be
vouchsafed to me to linger for a longer time in them I must often and
anxiously exclaim: "O God, make speed to save me: O Lord, make
haste to help me." Encompassed by nightly horrors of devils I am
agitated, and am disturbed by the appearances of unclean spirits, my
very hope of life and salvation is withdrawn by the horror of fear.
Flying to the safe refuge of this verse, I will cry out with all my
might: "O God, make speed to save me: O Lord, make haste to help
me." Again, when I have been restored by the Lord's consolation,
and, cheered by His coming, feel myself encompassed as if by countless
thousands of angels, so that all of a sudden I can venture to seek the
conflict and provoke a battle with those whom a while ago I dreaded
worse than death, and whose touch or even approach I felt with a
shudder both of mind and body: In order that the vigour of this
courage may, by God's grace, continue in me still longer, I must cry
out with all my powers "O God, make speed to save me: O Lord,
make haste to help me." We must then ceaselessly and
continuously pour forth the prayer of this verse, in adversity that we
may be delivered, in prosperity that we may be preserved and not
puffed up. Let the thought of this verse, I tell you, be conned over
in your breast without ceasing. Whatever work you are doing, or
office you are holding, or journey you are going, do not cease to
chant this. When you are going to bed, or eating, and in the last
necessities of nature, think on this. This thought in your heart may
be to you a saving formula, and not only keep you unharmed by all
attacks of devils, but also purify you from all faults and earthly
stains, and lead you to that invisible and celestial contemplation,
and carry you on to that ineffable glow of prayer, of which so few
have any experience. Let sleep come upon you still considering this
verse, till having been moulded by the constant use of it, you grow
accustomed to repeat it even in your sleep. When you wake let it be
the first thing to come into your mind, let it anticipate all your
waking thoughts, let it when you rise from your bed send you down on
your knees, and thence send you forth to all your work and business,
and let it follow you about all day long. This you should think
about, according to the Lawgiver's charge, "at home and walking
forth on a journey,"[593]
sleeping and waking. This you should write on the threshold and door
of your mouth, this you should place on the walls of your house and in
the recesses of your heart so that when you fall on your knees in
prayer this may be your chant as you kneel, and when you rise up from
it to go forth to all the necessary business of life it may be your
constant prayer as you stand.
Of the perfection of prayer to which we can rise by
the system described.
THIS, this is the formula which the mind should unceasingly cling to
until, strengthened by the constant use of it and by continual
meditation, it casts off and rejects the rich and full material of all
manner of thoughts and restricts itself to the poverty of this one
verse, and so arrives with ready ease at that beatitude of the gospel,
which holds the first place among the other beatitudes: for He says
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven."[594] And so one who
becomes grandly poor by a poverty of this sort will fulfil this saying
of the prophet: "The poor and needy shall praise the name of the
Lord."[595] And indeed what
greater or holier poverty can there be than that of one who knowing
that he has no defence and no strength of his own, asks for daily help
from another's bounty, and as he is aware that every single moment his
life and substance depend on Divine assistance, professes himself not
without reason the Lord's bedesman, and cries to Him daily in prayer:
"But I am poor and needy: the Lord helpeth me."[596] And so by the illumination of God
Himself he mounts to that manifold knowledge of Him and begins
henceforward to be nourished on sublimer and still more sacred
mysteries, in accordance with these words of the prophet: "The
high hills are a refuge for the stags, the rocks for the
hedgehogs,"[597] which is very
fairly applied in the sense we have given, because whosoever continues
in simplicity and innocence is not injurious or offensive to any one,
but being content with his own simple condition endeavours simply to
defend himself from being spoiled by his foes, and becomes a sort of
spiritual hedgehog and is protected by the continual shield of that
rock of the gospel, i.e., being sheltered by the recollection of the
Lord's passion and by ceaseless meditation on the verse given above he
escapes the snares of his opposing enemies. And of these spiritual
hedgehogs we read in Proverbs as follows: "And the hedgehogs are
a feeble folk, who have made their homes in the rocks."[598] And indeed what is feebler than a
Christian, what is weaker than a monk, who is not only not permitted
any vengeance for wrongs done to him but is actually not allowed to
suffer even a slight and silent feeling of irritation to spring up
within? But whoever advances from this condition and not only secures
the simplicity of innocence, but is also shielded by the virtue of
discretion, becomes an exterminator of deadly serpents, and has Satan
crushed beneath his feet, and by his quickness of mind answers to the
figure of the reasonable stag, this man will feed on the mountains of
the prophets and Apostles, i.e., on their highest and loftiest
mysteries. And thriving on this pasture continually, he will take in
to himself all the thoughts of the Psalms and will begin to sing them
in such a way that he will utter them with the deepest emotion of
heart not as if they were the compositions of the Psalmist, but rather
as if they were his own utterances and his very own prayer; and will
certainly take them as aimed at himself, and will recognize that their
words were not only fulfilled formerly by or in the person of the
prophet, but that they are fulfilled and carried out daily in his own
case. For then the Holy Scriptures lie open to us with greater
clearness and as it were their very veins and marrow are exposed, when
our experience not only perceives but actually anticipates their
meaning, and the sense of the words is revealed to us not by an
exposition of them but by practical proof. For if we have experience
of the very state of mind in which each Psalm was sung and written, we
become like their authors and anticipate the meaning rather than
follow it, i.e., gathering the force of the words before we really
know them, we remember what has happened to us, and what is happening
in daily assaults when the thoughts of them come over us, and while we
sing them we call to mind all that our carelessness has brought upon
us, or our earnestness has secured, or Divine Providence has granted
or the promptings of the foe have deprived us of, or slippery and
subtle forgetfulness has carried off, or human weakness has brought
about, or thoughtless ignorance has cheated us of. For all these
feelings we find expressed in the Psalms so that by seeing whatever
happens as in a very clear mirror we understand it better, and so
instructed by our feelings as our teachers we lay hold of it as
something not merely heard but actually seen, and, as if it were not
committed to memory, but implanted in the very nature of things, we
are affected from the very bottom of the heart, so that we get at its
meaning not by reading the text but by experience anticipating it.
And so our mind will reach that incorruptible prayer to which in our
former treatise, as the Lord vouchsafed to grant, the scheme of our
Conference mounted, and this is not merely not engaged in gazing on
any image, but is actually distinguished by the use of no words or
utterances; but with the purpose of the mind all on fire, is produced
through ecstasy of heart by some unaccountable keenness of spirit, and
the mind being thus affected without the aid of the senses or any
visible material pours it forth to God with groanings and sighs that
cannot be uttered.
A question as to how spiritual thoughts can be
retained without losing them.
GERMANUS: We think that you have described to us not only the system
of this spiritual discipline for which we asked, but perfection
itself; and this with great clearness and openness. For what can be
more perfect and sublime than for the recollection of God to be
embraced in so brief a meditation, and for it, dwelling on a single
verse, to escape from all the limitations of things visible, and to
comprise in one short word the thoughts of all our prayers. And
therefore we beg you to explain to us one thing which still remains;
viz., how we can keep firm hold of this verse which you have given us
as a formula, in such a way that, as we have been by God's grace set
free from the trifles of worldly thoughts, so we may also keep a
steady grasp on all spiritual ones.
On the lightness of thoughts.
FOR when the mind has taken in the meaning of a passage in any Psalm,
this insensibly slips away from it, and ignorantly and thoughtlessly
it passes on to a text of some other Scripture. And when it has begun
to consider this with itself, while it is still not thoroughly
explored, the recollection of some other passage springs up, and shuts
out the consideration of the former subject. From this too it is
transferred to some other, by the entrance of some fresh
consideration, and the soul always turns about from Psalm to Psalm and
jumps from a passage in the Gospels to read one in the Epistles, and
from this passes on to the prophetic writings, and thence is carried
to some spiritual history, and so it wanders about vaguely and
uncertainly through the whole body of the Scriptures, unable, as it
may choose, either to reject or keep hold of anything, or to finish
anything by fully considering and examining it, and so becomes only a
toucher or taster of spiritual meanings, not an author and possessor
of them. And so the mind, as it is always light and wandering, is
distracted even in time of service by all sorts of things, as if it
were intoxicated, and does not perform any office properly. For
instance, while it is praying, it is recalling some Psalm or passage
of Scripture. While it is chanting, it is thinking about something
else besides what the text of the Psalm itself contains. When it
repeats a passage of Scripture, it is thinking about something that
has to be done, or remembering something that has been done. And in
this way it takes in and rejects nothing in a disciplined and proper
way, and seems to be driven about by random incursions, without the
power either of retaining what it likes or lingering over it. It is
then well for us before everything else to know how we can properly
perform these spiritual offices, and keep firm hold of this particular
verse which you have given us as a formula, so that the rise and fall
of our feelings may not be in a state of fluctuation from their own
lightness, but may lie under our own control.
The answer how we can gain stability of heart or of
thoughts.
ISAAC: Although, in our former discussion on the character of prayer,
enough was, as I think, said on this subject, yet as you want it
repeated to you again, I will give you a brief instruction on
steadfastness of heart. There are three things which make a shifting
heart steadfast, watchings, meditation, and prayer, diligence in which
and constant attention will produce steadfast firmness of mind. But
this cannot be secured in any other way unless all cares and anxieties
of this present life have been first got rid of by indefatigable
persistence in work dedicated not to covetousness but to the sacred
uses of the monastery, that we may thus be able to fulfil the
Apostle's command: "Pray without ceasing."[599] For he prays too little,
who is accustomed only to pray at the times when he bends his knees.
But he never prays, who even while on his bended knees is
distracted by all kinds of wanderings of heart. And therefore what we
would be found when at our prayers, that we ought to be before the
time of prayer. For at the time of its prayers the mind cannot help
being affected by its previous condition, and while it is praying,
will be either transported to things heavenly, or dragged down to
earthly things by those thoughts in which it had been lingering before
prayer.
Thus far did Abbot Isaac carry on his Second Conference on the
character of Prayer to us astonished hearers; whose instruction on the
consideration of that verse quoted above (which he gave as a sort of
outline for beginners to hold) we greatly admired, and wished to
follow very closely, as we fancied that it would be a short and easy
method; but we have found it even harder to observe than that system
of ours by which we used formerly to wander here and there in varied
meditations through the whole body of the Scriptures without being
tied by any chains of perseverance. It is then certain that no one is
kept away from perfection of heart by not being able to read, nor is
rustic simplicity any hindrance to the possession of purity of heart
and mind, which lies close at hand for all, if only they will by
constant meditation on this verse keep the thoughts of the mind safe
and sound towards God.
Next
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